Lean Bulking Meal Plan (A day of eating)

When it comes to building muscle your diet is the biggest and most important part of the equation. A diet built for muscle growth will help you better perform, progress, and recover much faster. In this post, I will include what a typical day of eating looks like for me while on a lean bulk in effort to help you get a better idea on how you can put together your own diet plan for building muscle.

Figure out your Base

Before I move on and show you my meals, I want you to know that all my meals are based on my own individual total calorie intake needs and macros. This is the first and most important step you need to take. Luckily I have already written everything you need to know about this topic and how to figure out your own individual nutritional needs. Make sure to check out my article on how to build a lean bulking meal plan for women, where I take you step-by-step.

Breakfast

I workout first thing in the morning and almost immediately head off to work so I don’t the extra time to spare cooking or even time to sit down and eat. Instead, I look for food options that I can whip up in less than 5 minutes and just grab and go. Regardless of wether, I am trying to lose body fat or gain muscle my breakfast doesn’t tend to change much. The reason behind this is due to my morning workouts, I need an adequate amount of protein to help restore muscle damage, carbs to help replenish glycogen (energy) stores, and fats to help balance hormones and overall health. This might be slightly different for you if you work out in the later part of the day.

This is what a typical breakfast looks like for me.

This meal includes the following:

1 c of oats

1 c of strawberries

1 scoop of vanilla whey protein powder

.5 oz walnuts

2 TBSP unsweetened coconut flakes

For protein, I tend to stick to protein powder due to its convenience. For carbs, I almost always include oats and a serving of fruit to help meet my fiber and micronutrients. For fats, I prefer nuts or nut butter. Depending on how I feel I will either blend it up and make a shake or I will cook my oats and mix everything together

Lunch

I tend to get very hungry in the early part of the day, again this is likely due to me working out in the morning. Exercise not only burns calories it also uses up energy stores and stimulates your appetite. So I always to try to have a nice big filling bowl of food that will not only meet my macronutrients but also focusing on consuming an adequate amount of veggies to meet my micronutrients.

This meal includes the following:

6oz of shredded chicken rotisserie

1 tomato

1 c anaheim peppers

1.5 c of white rice

.5 oz walnuts

I tend to stick to chicken the most but I will switch things up and do extra lean ground beef one day or lean ground turkey another day. I also tend to stick to rice the most because I love it but I will go back and forth between brown and white. As for veggies, I always try to switch it up and I will also go by the season.

Dinner

As for dinner, I will take the same approach I do for lunch and put together a nice big filling meal. Since I only eat 4 times a day my meal will be much larger than say someone that eats 5-6 meals.

This meal includes the following:

6oz salmon with skin-on

8 oz potatoes

1 cup broccoli

1 tbsp coconut oil (used for crisping the potatoes)

For dinner, I always try to include a high-quality fatty protein source like salmon. Salmon is full of protein and omega-3 fatty acids, and together these two nutrients help build and repair muscle tissue. Another one of my favorite carb sources are potatoes — sweet, yellow, white you name it I love them all. Potatoes are full of nutrients so they are also a great option to include in your meal plan.

Late Night Snack

An hour or two before bed I try to consume proteins that contain a higher casein content, which is a slower digesting protein. Consuming a slow digesting protein will help reduce muscle breakdown and recovery during sleep. Food high in casein content are cottage cheese, yogurt, cheese, Keifer, and casein whey protein powder.

Option A

This meal includes the following:

1 c 2% plain yogurt

1 medium apple

3/4c granola

I will alternate between this meal or cottage cheese shakes. Shakes are a great option if you are not very hungry or if you have a large gap between your meals you didn’t quite meet.

I also prefer shakes if I am consuming it not too long before I go to bed because your body will absorb the nutrients from liquids much faster than solids even if they contain the same amount of calories.

Option B

Here is another one of my favorite go-to late snacks — Cottage cheese shakes. These are a staple in my diet especially when I am bulking, it’s so much easier to meet my calorie intake this way.

This meal includes the following:

1/2 c 2% cottage cheese

1/2 scoop whey protein

1 cup of strawberries or 1/2 banana

1/2 c oats

12 almonds

Cinnamon, to taste

Cinnamon is great because it helps improve insulin sensitivity. I also prefer to add actual pieces of a cinnamon stick vs ground cinnamon, the taste is so much better.

If you noticed I did not provide the total calories nor macros that is because this will vary for everybody.

Supplements

In regards to supplements, I tend to stick to a multivitamin, whey protein powder, digestive enzymes, and Omega 3 fatty acids.

Multivitamin

Although I am consuming a well-balanced diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables I still make sure to consume a multivitamin. This helps prevent any deficiencies of essential vitamins and minerals crucial growth and overall health.

If you are in search of a multivitamin I highly recommend Naturelo’s Multivitamin for women. These are easy to swallow and great for those with sensitive stomachs.Rating: 4.4/5

Digestive Enzymes

Omega 3

Regardless of whether I am focusing on fat loss or muscle gain I always make sure to consume an adequate amount of Omega 3 fatty acids. However, during my bulking phases, one of my goals is to become stronger in all my lifts. To reach this goal, I make sure to progressively increase my volume and weight while I train. As a result, I can become very sore. So I always slightly increase my Omega 3 fatty acid consumption to help prevent and speed up muscle recovery. Check out my article my post about Preventing Muscle Soreness and Speeding up Muscle Recovery to learn more about this.

Final Thoughts

So here is a typical day of what I eat while lean bulking. Hopefully, this helps to give you some insight on how your meals could look like. The key really is to implement foods that you not only enjoy but are also simple and easy to make.

Hi, I'm Rosie and I am a wife, mother of 2, and a part-time employee. I am here to help inspire and encourage other women that also run on a busy schedule and share my personal fitness development and knowledge. Helping busy Mama's achieve their fitness goals even on a crazy busy schedule is my purpose.

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